Once Upon A Time: Her Dragon
by Pikaskye
Summary: Lucy recounts sleepy nights reading with her mother, before she died. She still has memories; perhaps she can enjoy them a different way when her favourite male Dragon Slayer bursts in. RATED K for minor swearing.


**Allo! This Fic idea just came to me and I thought it would be sweet. **

**Lucy does some past-searching, and realizes that she still had what her mother gave her, just in a different way.**

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Little Lucy had always found Fairy tales fun and interesting to listen to. Her mama used to tell her stories just before the petite blonde went to bed at night. She would fall asleep thinking of brave knights and evil witches and creepy goblins, and magnificent castles and poisoned apples...

And Dragons.

When she was smaller, she used to gasp when 'the fierce, mighty Dragon snatched the princess up and took her to its lair, where it would keep her there until he felt hungry,' and then the prince would come and save the maiden before she was eaten.

The first rules in Fairy Tales; princes always won over the dragons.

Whenever she used to think of the magnificent Dragons, she thought of sneaky, hungry snakes with huge jaws that could swallow a whole town, with dark impenetrable scales lining its body, and bright, glowing yellow eyes that would make most people run in fear.

But of course, not the prince.

He would ride valiantly into the Dragon's lair, holding his sword and head high as he charged the mighty beast, as the princess cried out for his safety in the background. Eventually, their love would prevail; the dead dragon would lie as a corpse on the ground, dully watching as the prince and princess would ride off into the sunset on a pure white horse and get married.

Lucy found herself pondering this as she flipped through an old picture book that her mama used to read to her. She chuckled at the pictures and remembered how thrilled she would be in bed as she listened to the terrifying story, hiding underneath the covers in fright as the dragon 'whipped his head around, trying to scent the hiding prince. When its back was turned, the prince made a giant leap, making a giant wound on the reptile. The beast cried out his pain, its roaring echoing throughout its lair,' even though she'd heard the story a billion times before.

And besides, Lucy thought that was awfully mean of the prince. Who'd want to be cut with a giant sword? I mean, sure he kidnapped the princess, but couldn't they just talk it out or something? And who says that the princess even _wants_ the prince? She can't really say no after he just killed a dragon for her, even if he's a fat, sweaty old geezer.

Then she met Natsu and Happy at Hargeon. Slowly, her mind changed her frightening description of an evil dragon into something a little more... softer. She imagined it pink, for one thing. Kind of a... pinky-salmon kinda colour. It would fight for what was right, not wrong, like following the evil witch's evil plans. It could breathe fire [as all dragons could do,] and could smile, showing off all its pointed teeth. Maybe it was kinda creepy at first, but eventually you found it kinda cute.

And then Lucy thought, why is this Dragon all alone? He must have kidnapped the princess for a little more than just food, right? He lives in a cave all day, for god's sake! Maybe he was lonely. Doesn't he have his Dragon friends or something? So she pictured two sky-blue and steel-grey dragons to accompany him.

And the prince is so stupid sometimes. You don't just go charging into someone's home without knocking! Lucy shook her head at the strange thought. And besides... taking on a dragon? You would be charcoal in two seconds.

"Hey Luce!" Lucy yelped, falling off her bed at the sudden voice behind her. The book she was holding fell to the ground, pages opened.

"Natsu!" the blonde looked in annoyance behind her at the pink haired boy, her partner, that liked to climb in through her window to greet her. He wore a black vest and a scaly white scarf was wrapped around his neck. He had onyx eyes that flickered with determination all the time. "Don't scare me like that!"

The Dragon Slayer grinned, showing off all his teeth and strangely pointed canines. He hopped down from the windowsill and landing on the bed next to her, making the springs _creak_ in protest. "so, what you up to?" he asked, picking up the picture book. "Ne... nev... never edd... never ending fairy tale?" he read, pronunciating each word slowly. Lucy chuckled, remembering that he was practically illiterate, taking the book from him.

"Never Ending Fairy Tale. It's a book my mom used to read to me. Before she died."

"Oh." Natsu looked up. "Could you read one to me?" he smiled.

Lucy blinked. "Ya, uh... sure. Which one would you like?"

Lucy was about to open the book to look at the table or contents, but Natsu said, "Something with Dragons." He lay down on her bed, leaning back on her pillow, arms cradling his head.

"Okay." She flipped the page to the one she was reading before the Dragon Slayer crashed in. "Once Upon A Time..."

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"The end." Lucy closed the book with a sigh, looking down at the pink haired boy. It was quiet for a moment.

"I find that very stupid." He said, killing the mood. Lucy looked over at him, slightly insulted. "I mean, really? A prince defeating a dragon with nothing but a sword? That's B.S."

"It's a Fairy Tale. They're for children."

Natsu looked over at her with his onyx eyes, with a bit of a duck-face. "And... so? A mighty Dragon would not, and could not, be beaten by a measly prince."

Lucy chuckled. "Well, Fairy Tales are different. Love always prevails in these."

"And what about the Dragon? Is he a hermit or something? How far would you go just to get some company? Kidnap a girl? I mean, that's sick." He continued on his rant, so Lucy went to go get a glass of water to soothe her dry throat from reading aloud too much. When she came back from the kitchen, he was still talking.

"—that is so stupid. And a Dragon would never be so inconsiderate! He would at least make her comfortable!" Lucy put the glass on her facing, looking away from Natsu. For some reason she tinged red at his words.

"Are you done yet?" she asked. He stopped blabbing at looked at her.

"Well, I could still go on." He said. "But I'll stop if you want me to."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Natsu?" he chuckled, the sound reverberating through his chest.

"I'm Natsu, I'm sure of it." her eyes narrowed, but with a final 'hrumph' she gave up. She stood up to go make lunch, because it was about noon and she was getting hungry.

From the bedroom, Natsu asked curiously, "Hey, Luce? Maybe the Dragon kidnapped the girl because he loved her?" It was in the form of a question, not a sentence.

Lucy momentarily stopped making their sandwiches [because the Fire mage was always ravenous,] and looked at the doorway in surprise. "Uhhh... Natsu? What makes you say that?"

His head poked from the entrance. "Cause he must have had a good reason to kidnap the princess. He lived in a cave, with nobody to talk to, and he was surrounded by people who were terrified of him." she turned away to put the butter away, purposely so she could hide her crimson face. She didn't know why, but her face was looking as red as a tomato. She blamed hormones.

Natsu leaned on the counter, looking down at the sandwiches she was making. "Is one of those for me?" he asked, completely distraction from the conversation they were having.

Lucy chuckled, back facing him. "Yep. The one with hot sauce on it." Natsu got the sandwich and shoved it down his gullet, swallowing without bothering to chew and finally burping. Lucy wrinkled her nose. "That's gross."

She put her sandwich on a plate and went into her room, the Fire mage following behind her. "But Igneel wouldn't kidnap a girl! Besides, he says humans taste terrible." Lucy sent a bewildered look at the pink-haired boy. Igneel was his foster father, a real Dragon, but from what she'd heard, Igneel was a _nice_ Dragon.

Natsu didn't get the implication behind the words. "Igneel ate humans?" she demanded.

Natsu ahhed. "No, he used to back in the days, before he found me. He said it was a long time ago, when he was in his Dragon teenager years."

Lucy frowned. "O-okay..."

"Either way, Igneel taught me different Dragon Fairy Tales. They were about brave Dragons who protected princesses and fought alongside humanity from other greedy humans."

"Like?"

Natsu smiled. "Well, I don't remember it that much, since it was a long time ago, but..."

"There was a Dragon, hidden in a forest—"

"You forgot Once Upon A Time."

"What?"

"You're always supposed to start a story with once upon a time."

"This is a Dragon Fairy Tale. Igneel never said anything about Once Upon A Time."

Even though her friend was eccentric, slightly stupid, hyper, crazy, protective, a party-hard type of person, dense, goofy, determined, this was _her_ Dragon, and she wouldn't have him any other way.

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**Okay, so how do you guys think? Was it bad? Good? **

**I'll be posting up new chapters of 'FireFlies' soon, for you Four Magics/FireFlies readers out there, and I'm possibly might start a Once Upon a Time drabble series, starting with this one, with a bunch of FT pairings. I TAKE REQUESTS! but I'm gonna need reviews! **

**Cookie for a review? **


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